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Onyxia.. which pet?

Onyxia is a fight of three parts.

Part 1: on the ground, tank and spank. Stay out from the front (cleave/fire breathing) and behind (tail swipe) her.. and whale on her until she reaches some percent (honestly I don’t know what percent) at which point she walks across the room and takes off into the air.

Part 2: Ony flies around the ceiling of the cave and occationally shoots out little fireballs and deep breaths. At this point she seems to be out-of-reach of melee. Melee kills the big adds, Ranged dpses on Ony or on packs of whelps. Everyone avoid the deep breaths.

Part 3: Ony hits 40% and lands. Back to a tank and spank except now occasionally Ony fears everyone and the floor erupts in lava bursting out of the cracks (don’t stand on a crack, don’t pop any more whelps out of the whelp caves, kill her until she’s dead).
In a “normal” fight, as affliction, my preferred pets are the Doomguard or the Succubus. The problem is that they’re both melee pets. So really on Ony they’re only useful in phase 1 and 3. In phase two they’re just kind of following me around. Add to that, in both of those phases they can get smacked back by the tail and (I think) has the possibility of pulling whelps.

Destruction Warlocks have it easy. Their chosen pet is the Imp. He can stand right next to them, they can set him to attack, he can hit Ony in any of the three phases.. and he doesn’t try and melee so he’s not going to get smacked back by the tail. Add to that, destruction warlocks get a huge buff when the Imp Crits.

My question is.. even though, as an affliction lock, I am not getting the spiffy imp-crit buff.. should I be using the Imp too?

The pet damage is minimal.. but the “not going to pull whelps” may be big. Hrm.

8 comments to Onyxia.. which pet?

Pretty sure pets don’t pull whelps… but I may be wrong. I see hunter pets getting knocked back all the time (I was destro specced till last night and haven’t done onyxia yet as afflic) and they don’t seem to pull whelps, even when she’s all swung around. May be wrong.

As of right now pets do not pull whelps. I watch minions, hunter pets, and ghouls get tail whipped back. They do not agro whelp adds … which does not say anything about their masters not pulling the whelps.

Now it is a mater picking the minion that is most effective dps for you.
.-= hydra´s last blog ..Lugnut =-.

Well alrighty then.. so if pets that are on passive (and only attacking Onyxia) can’t pull whelps.. then the only question is if the loss of DPS in phase 2 is worth changing to a lower DPS pet (imp) for the whole fight.

I’m Demonology (Meta/Ruin), so I’m running Felguard – and I send him after the adds. Now, I have the tier 1 talent that heals my pet based on my damage, so I can do so with little fear of losing the pet. I dunno if you Affliction guys get that talent, though.

I don’t know if this will help, but as a BM hunter who wants to make sure my pet (who is part of my DPS) is always doing something, I make sure my pet is on passive and helps take down the spawning adds in phase 2 while I focus on the boss. While it’s not helping bring Ony down, it’s helping the rest of the raid.

I agree with Bell – although I’m yet to do it on my hunter, keeping your pet on the adds would be a sensible way to sustain your DPS and contribute to the raid. Otherwise, there’s quite a long transition time, why not switch demons?

Yeah, I would probably send your pet after adds on Phase 2. That’s what all our hunters do, and you might just have to pull him away when the add blast novas (although pets take reduced AoE damage anyway, I do believe). So, your pet is still useful and contributing to your DPS after all!
.-= Saresa´s last blog ..Because Angry Rants Make Me Feel All Warm and Fuzzy Inside =-.